1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management system for semiconductor equipment testings and a method thereof, so as to prevent abnormal testing results made by human errors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With developments of the industrial society, various types of manufacturing equipments are developed to raise production yields. For example, various types of manufacturing equipments are required to define patterns of semiconductor electric devices in different processes, such as thin-film deposition equipments, photolithographic equipments, etching equipments, ion implantation equipments, rapid thermal treatment equipments, and chemicalmechanical polishing equipments. To ensure the characteristics of the devices agree with the specifications thereof, a high degree of cleanness is required in the manufacturing environment and a high reliability is also required on the manufacturing equipments. Therefore, either new or used equipments have to do equipment tests according to a predetermined testing frequency to check whether a specific testing item of the equipments agrees with corresponding specifications, so as to expand a life-span of the equipments and ensure the quality of the products.
Please refer to FIG. 1 of a flow chart for semiconductor equipment tests according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, a flow chart 1 for the semiconductor equipment tests according to the prior art includes the following steps:
step 11: set up a new equipment, for example build operating conditions or parameters for the equipment;
step 12: process engineers define a new testing sheet for the new equipment, the testing sheet including testing items and testing specifications for the new equipment;
step 13: operators perform equipment testings, for example put monitor wafers in the equipment to perform associated processes;
step 14: operators obtain testing data of the equipment and do calculation base on the testing data;
step 15: operators input the calculated testing data in a database;
step 16: engineers get the calculated testing data from the database;
step 17: engineers prepare weekly reports according to the calculated testing data, for example use the Excel tools to illustrate the calculated testing data into trend charts;
step 18: supervisors can control the status of the equipment according to the weekly reports; and
step 19: end.
The prior art for equipment testings has several disadvantages. For example, the process engineers have to define the new testing sheet for each of the new equipment, the operators have to do calculation base on the testing data before the testing data is stored in the database, the engineers have to prepare the reports every week, and the supervisors can control the status of the equipments only depending on the weekly reports. Therefore, the prior method increases the load of the engineers. In addition, the reliability of the testing data is reduced since it is possible for the operators to use wrong testing sheets or make calculation errors on the testing data. Furthermore, since the supervisors cannot get real time testing results for the equipment, it is hard for them to effectively control the equipments.
It is therefore an objective of the claimed invention to provide an automation system for semiconductor equipment testings to prevent abnormal testing results made by human errors.
It is another objective of the claimed invention to provide an automation system for semiconductor equipment testings to improve reliability of equipment testings.
It is another objective of the claimed invention to provide an automation system for semiconductor equipment testings to provide real time information of equipment testings and event management.
According to the claimed invention, the semiconductor automation system includes a database for storing testing items, testing specifications, and testing frequencies for each semiconductor equipment; a processor for selecting a corresponding testing specification from the database to perform real time calculation on newly added testing data, thus getting a testing result; and a message server for alarming responsible engineers when the testing result is abnormal.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the semiconductor automation system utilizes the testing specifications and the calculation rules stored in the database to perform the real time calculation and check the testing result. Therefore, the equipment testings are performed more effectively, and human calculation errors are reduced to improve reliability of the equipment testings. In addition, the semiconductor automation system provides event management to send the reminder messages when the testing result is abnormal or when the equipment is found not test according to schedule. As a result, the status of the equipment can be easily controlled to facilitate analysis and improvement of production yields.